As we move into an era of unprecedented volumes of data and computing power, the benefits aren't for business alone. Data can help citizens access government, hold it accountable and build new services to help themselves.

Simply making data available is not sufficient. The use of data for the public good is being driven by a distributed community of media, nonprofits, academics and civic advocates.

This report from O'Reilly Radar highlights the principles of data in the public good, and surveys areas where data is already being used to great effect, covering:

Alex Howard

Alexander B. Howard is the Government 2.0 Correspondent for O’Reilly Media, where he reports on technology, open government and online civics. Before joining O’Reilly, Howard was the associate editor of SearchCompliance.com at TechTarget. His work there focused on how regulations affect IT operations, including issues of data protection, privacy, security and enterprise IT strategy. Before moving the focus of his coverage to cybersecurity, online privacy and compliance, Howard was the associate editor of WhatIs.com, an online IT encyclopedia. In that role, he researched and wrote about nearly every aspect of enterprise IT, including the impact of social software on business and the media. In his spare time, he practiced writing about himself in the third person, with mixed results. Howard’s work experience also includes working in operations for an e-business consultancy, as a knowledge broker for a management consulting firm, as a middle school teacher, as a master home builder and, very briefly, as a garden manager at an outstanding Italian restaurant. Howard graduated from Colby College with a bachelor’s degree in biology and sociology.

Data for the Public Good by Alex Howard is a concise and hard-hitting 22 pages long. I saw it as 100% long as I read it on met eReader between home and my morning coffee and porridge. 22 pages really works! It is just the right amount of superbly editing and curated data to engage with an absorb in a session in a fast-paced world. Reflect here on how we package and deliver information today.

The iterative open data process is at the heart of revolution in any of the sectors touched: data drives demand -> public demand drives better data --> version control (and fluidity of release) adds dimension to this data.

The book itself is a succinct survey of examples and principles supporting more open sharing of data (both public and private) for the service of citizens and citizenry. Although much of of this book focuses on open government data, it is the public good served by both public and private data that is in discussion and doesn't shrink from broaching the sensitive areas of privacy and economic value. Alex Howard admits readily that 'accountability and transparency are important civil goods, but adopting open data requires grounded arguments for a CFO to support these.' Data for the Public Good explores the political, financial, transportation and health systems rapidly identifying the key points of friction, challenge and benefit that can be derived by open-minded consideration of how both the availability of data and our perceptions of our data-informed lives are changing how we see and govern ourselves.

Three aspects highlight the innate value of open data to better government according to Howard:

- open data can rebuild fractured and bankrupted trust in the system and pay dividends over time;- open data can create an accountable workforce through KPI driven dashboards to increase efficiency;- availability of open data supports business building as the connection between reading human vital signs is transferred to an understanding of the vital signs of the city, and;- open data driven predictability analysis identifies service cost savings, intervention points and leads to greater efficiencies.

In the healthcare sector, the author reaffirms the ethos that is the 'quantified self movement (I write this with a FitBit strapped to my belt ; -) and reminds that in healthcare, although its is easily demonstrated that awareness directly impacts on more effective diagnosis and treatment, 'you don't just go and download data and slather [it] on yourself and get healed. Data is useful when it's integrated with other stuff that does useful jobs for doctors, patients and consumers.' Behaviour and our approach to making good data a part of good practise holds the keys to improving healthcare in the longer term.

Finally, and I think crucially to both the argument and the movement, Howard cites Todd Parks' contention that value is derived not just by releasing more data, but by making that data truly accessible and usable - two key points that I have a sense get overlooked in the popular discussions surrounding Open Access to data today. Note: Open + Access ? Open Access : These terms together are very different from the separate words dealt in isolation.

This is a short book about the ethos behind the open data tagline. It's an empowering, short read with a multitude of examples and particularly well enunciated message: our behaviour is rapidly evolving in response to the increasingly data-driven lives we lead - there's great individual opportunities and even greater collective rewards.